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St. Mary’s to get $1.3M from Salazar Medicare bill

St. Mary’s Hospital is set to receive $1.3 million from the federal government in
reimbursement for Medicare patients.

The money is drawn from legislation introduced by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., to offset some of the higher costs that hospitals in rural areas face in treating Medicare patients.

Such hospitals, which St. Mary’s vice president of business development Dan Prinster said are the medical “providers of last resort” because they deal with more indigent, low-income and trauma patients, need help.

Those hospitals are less able to control costs associated with Medicare patients, Prinster said.

Other West Slope hospitals receiving money under the Medicare Sole Community Hospital Preservation Act, which Congress passed in June, are:

• Mercy Medical Center, Durango: $4.2 million

• Southwest Memorial Hospital, Cortez: $109,000

• Yampa Valley Medical Center, Steamboat Springs: $1.66 million

• Valley View Hospital, Glenwood Springs: $926,000

• Vail Valley Medical Center, Vail: $2.28 million.

“These hospitals see a high number of Medicare patients, have higher costs because they serve isolated regions of the state and many are struggling to hang on in these tough economic times,” Salazar said in a press release.